Mozzicato DePasquale Bakery is a family-owned institution in Hartford. The Thanksgiving holiday rush means workers create trays of cookies for local customers and distribution. Photos by Shana Sureck.

Owner Gino Mozzicato finishes the frosting on some cakes. Gino moved to Hartford from Italy in 1968, opening the bakery with his wife Gisella. They still run it with their children Gina, Paolo, and Rino.

The famous Mozzicato De Pasquale bakery and pastry shop, with an attached café on Franklin Avenue in Hartford.

A baker prepares the traditional Italian fruit cakes with light sponge cake layered with peaches, strawberries, and whipped cream. The cakes are a store favorite for which Mozzicotto's is known — and loved.

A baker prepares the traditional Italian fruit cakes with light sponge cake layered with peaches, strawberries, and whipped cream. The cakes are a store favorite for which Mozzicotto's is known — and loved.

Pastry tubes filled with frosting are tools of the trade.

In the days leading up to Thanksgiving, customers wait in line at Mozzicato's to choose their traditional holiday treats.

Mozzicato's Cafe is the place to get a delicious cappuccino to go with your sweet treat.

Alphonse Marotta, president of the South Hartford Merchants Association, has been a South End resident his whole life. Photo by Ryan Caron King.

Alphonse Marotta's father operated three pushcarts in the Italian section of Front Street. Photo by Ryan Caron King.

Houses in the South End of Hartford are decked out in holiday spirit. Photos by Shana Sureck.

Jose Figueora stands outside his home, which is decked out in Christmas lights. Photos by Shana Sureck.

Johnny Lopez in front of his home, just off of Franklin Avenue, that he decorates with lights each year for the Christmas season. With him are some of his grandchildren: Jordan, 7; Ally, 3; and Nani, 6.

Lazy-D Ranch owner Jim Dance works with a crew of Bulkeley High School students from the City Slickers program, who take turns driving the tractor.

Bulkeley High School students Olwitch DeDe Parisse, Cray Moo Taw, and Henry Tun have bonded and become close friends through the City Slickers program that brings them from the city to a farm in Terryville one day a week.

Risha Knight cleans horse stalls as part of Bulkeley High School's City Slickers program.

The work can be muddy and messy cleaning out the stalls at Lazy-D Ranch in Terryville, but Bulkeley High School City Slickers dress for the job.

Student Shafida Raja Kamal has a quiet moment petting a horse as she cleans out a stall at Lazy-D Ranch.

Ashquil McKay stands ready to work at Lazy-D Ranch, where he and the other City Slickers, many refugees and new immigrants, can bond and create a family through the experience.

If you’ve visited Hartford’s South End, you might be familiar with Mozzicato DePasquale Bakery on Franklin Avenue. It’s an “institution” in the city — a place that has been around for a long time, and that if you visit Hartford and don’t stop in, you’re crazy.

Mozzicato’s has pastries, cakes, pizza, bread, and lots more delicious food, plus a cafe where you can get espresso drinks.

“I had to do something, had to make a living,” said Gino Mozzicato, who came to Hartford from Sicily in 1968 and started the bakery five years later. “People like us became a well-known name. We cater to the customer, to the people. We’ve been friendly, helpful, respectable. That’s why we’re over here today.”

What used to be a mostly Italian neighborhood is now much more diverse. “Immigration change the people. Still the people still like the sweets,” Mozzicato said.

Al Marotta has been a South End resident since 1949. Today he’s the president of the South Hartford Merchants Association, and he’s pleased to see new generations of homeowners move in to the neighborhood. “I think in the past three years, there has been a great change,” he said, “It’s been a positive thing.”

At nearby Bulkeley High School, students speak 23 different languages. It has a program called City Slickers that brings together refugee, immigrant, and special needs students to a farm in Terryville, Connecticut to learn skills and connect with other students. We hear from some of them, and learn more about what it’s like for them to live in Hartford — including a Burmese refugee who is getting used to a new place, and experiencing snow for the first time.

Mozzicato Radius Extras:

The City Slickers program is helping Bulkeley High School immigrant and refugee students to learn skills and connect with others at a farm in Terryville, Connecticut. Learn more »

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